BBVA Compass Names New CIO

Gabriel Sanchez Iniesta will replace Sergio Fidalgo, who has been promoted to a new role with parent company BBVA Group.

With a mandate to lead technology growth with a focus on multichannel banking, Gabriel Sanchez Iniesta has been named the new chief information officer for BBVA Compass, charged with leading the bank's technology strategy in U.S. He will replace Sergio Fidalgo, who will return to Spain in connection with his appointment as head of applications and architecture for BBVA Group.

Previously Sanchez Iniesta served as BBVA Group's Multichannel Technologies director. In that role he was responsible for developing the multichannel architecture BBVA developed in many countries across its global footprint and the core banking platform it currently uses in Spain. He joined BBVA Group in 1997 following several years with Accenture. "We are getting another talented executive from BBVA to lead our Technology and Support Services organization," said BBVA Compass President and CEO Manolo Sanchez, in a press release.

Fidalgo, who was in charge of BBVA Compass' Technology and Support Services unit for five years, led a major transformation of the bank's legacy technology into a core banking platform, based on Accenture's Alnova core banking infrastructure, that enables real-time transactions.